Decision Science for Impact Assessment Professionals
Decision Science for Impact Assessment Professionals
Make smarter, more defensible decisions in complex, high-stakes environments. This three-day course gives impact assessment professionals practical tools to balance trade-offs, manage uncertainty, and build trust in the choices they make.
- Presented by: Palash Sanyal
- Course level: Intermediate/Advanced
- Language of delivery: English
- Prerequisites: Experience in impact assessment, project coordination, or stakeholder engagement. Bring some confusing/complicated decisions to the table!
- Homework between sessions: Short pre-course reflection (15–20 min) on a real-world decision challenge. Between sessions, draft a 1–2 page outline of a current decision problem for group work. Post-course, use an optional workbook to apply tools to your projects. Be prepared to face challenges, confusion, and puzzlement while trying to make decisions!
- Logistics: This course takes place live over Zoom in multiple segments. Course times are listed in UTC; make sure to check that the time of this course works for you in your time zone.
Make better decisions in complex times.
Impact Assessment professionals face tough choices every day: project approvals, mitigation strategies, resource allocation, and stakeholder alignment. These are high-stakes decisions made in uncertain environments, often with incomplete data and competing values.
This course introduces Decision Science as a practical toolkit to strengthen how those choices are made. Over three days, you will learn to:
- Frame problems clearly and avoid scope creep.
- Use Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) to weigh competing priorities.
- Build consequence tables to compare trade-offs across environmental, social, and economic impacts.
- Apply scenario planning to prepare for uncertain futures.
- Integrate diverse stakeholder values into structured, transparent decision processes.
- Communicate complex decisions in ways that build trust and withstand scrutiny.
By the end of the course, you will walk away with a practical, evidence-based decision toolkit that makes your work more transparent, inclusive, and defensible.
Palash Sanyal, ICD.D, PMP, CPF, GCB.D is an executive facilitator, coach, and educator with global experience in impact assessment and decision-making. He has designed and delivered training for the World Bank, The Nature Conservancy, and universities and colleges across Canada and the United States. Palash also serves on several national and international boards in both the for-profit and non-profit sectors, bringing practical governance insight to every learning environment.
IAIA Members: USD$480 // Non-Members: USD$580. Full payment must be received by the posted registration deadline.
All course times are listed in UTC. Make sure to check that the time of this course works for you in your time zone.
Registration instructions: Create or login to your IAIA Member Compass account. Register online using a credit card. To pay via wire, choose the invoice option at checkout. If paying via wire, please keep in mind that payment must be received by the registration deadline, and wire transfers can take several days to process. Please plan accordingly.
Please register early! The course will be cancelled if the minimum number has not been reached one week before the course start date. If the training course is cancelled at that time due to low enrollment, IAIA will notify you and provide refund information.
Payment & refund policies: Registration is not confirmed until payment has been received and a receipt has been issued. Pre-registration and pre-payment by individual course deadline is required. IAIA will refund registration fees upon written request received before the specific course deadline; a US$125 processing fee will be retained. After the course deadline date, no refunds will be issued for cancelations or no-shows. Substitutions for paid registrants may be made in writing without financial penalty.
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